It's alive! Origami rockets that go hopping and skittering across the table in the manner of a tropical spider in a storm. This project borrows the tinkering of hobbyist robotics and straps it to a 6th century art. There is no previous knowledge of origami required to complete the vibrogami bot, all the instructions for the different types of folds are below. The kids will love it!

Buddhist monks first brought origami to Japan. The etymology of the term derives from the words 'ori' (folding) and 'kami' (paper). Before the mass production of paper, origami was only used for religious purposes and each figure symbolized various sacred concepts. Well, our rocket is quite special too...

YOU'LL NEED:

Origami paper

3VDC micro vibration motor

CR2032 battery

Vertical battery holder

Double-sided tape

Electrical tape

Small piece of card (2 cm x 1 cm)

scissors / hobby knife

If you're having trouble following the provided steps, feel free to contact us. We'd enjoy hearing from you!

Folding Rocket: Step One

Start with the color side of the origami paper facing up.

Folding Rocket: Step Two

Make a mountain fold over the diagonal of the square and unfold again. A mountain fold is a fold which, when unfolded, peaks up, so the colored side stays on the outside when folding.

Folding Rocket: Step Three

Repeat step two on the other diagonal of the paper.

Folding Rocket: Step Four

Unfold and flip the paper over so the white side is facing up.

Folding Rocket: Step Five

Make a valley fold in the middle from top to bottom. A valley fold means that when unfolded, and looking from the colored side, the fold peaks down.

Folding Rocket: Step Six

Unfold the previous fold and make a valley fold, this time folding in the middle from left to right.

Folding Rocket: Step Seven

Unfold the previous fold so the paper returns to the a square. Flip the paper over so the colored side is facing up.

Folding Rocket: Step Eight

Push the valley folds inwards and let the mountain folds pop out, so the paper becomes a pyramid.

Folding Rocket: Step Nine

Now flatten it all the way into a triangle.

Folding Rocket: Step Ten

Lift one of the corners up and slightly open it. You will see it resembles a pocket.

Folding Rocket: Step Eleven

Hold the pocket open and push down on the mountain fold to flatten it. This is called a squash fold.

Folding Rocket: Step Twelve

Repeat step eleven for all four corners until your paper looks diamond shaped, like the above image.

Folding Rocket: Step Thirteen

Flip one of the corners over from left to right. Now you can see white from the back of the paper at the bottom.

Folding Rocket: Step Fourteen

Take the top point of the diamond and fold it down to the bottom point. Unfold it again. This fold gives us a line of reference for the steps to come.

Folding Rocket: Step Fifteen

Lift the left corner of the diamond shape and fold it inward so it aligns with the center line. Repeat this for the right corner.

Folding Rocket: Step Sixteen

Unfold the previous two folds and lift up the center of the colored part between the folds. This again forms a pocket; lift it all the way out and up. Squash it along the line we made with the previous step. This is called a petal fold. Make sure the petal fold is squashed neatly to a point.

Folding Rocket: Step Seventeen

Take the top point of the petal you just created and fold it down.

Folding Rocket: Step Eighteen

Now repeat steps 15-18 to create petal folds on the other three sides as well.

Folding Rocket: Step Nineteen

Take one of the legs and slightly open it up, as if undoing the center fold. Now lift it up sideways, raising it to 90 degrees and push the fold through so it reverses and flatten it. This type of fold is called a reverse fold.

Folding Rocket: Step Twenty

Repeat the reverse fold on the other three legs.

Folding Rocket: Step Twenty-one

Now make another reverse fold halfway down the legs so they point downwards again. Take the leg and allow it to open up while pushing it down and allowing the fold to reverse. Make sure to flatten well.

Folding Rocket: Step Twenty-two

Repeat step twenty-one for the other legs. When all are pointing down again simply take your rocket and open it up so all legs point to their own corner.

Folding Rocket: Step Twenty-three

On the 'body' diamond shape fold the left and right corner towards the center but not totally against it. These folds are to reinforce the body and make it more pointy.

Folding Rocket: Step Twenty-four

Repeat step 23 on the remaining three sides. Now simply open up your rocket so that each leg points to it's own corner and your rocket is ready for blast off!

Vibrobotics: Step One

Now onto Vibrorobotics!

Take your battery holder and bend the small center and left metal pins carefully, so it becomes a tiny hook.

Vibrobotics: Step Two

Strip about 2 cm of the cable on your vibration motor and twist one of the ends around the middle metal pin on the battery holder.

Vibrobotics: Step Three

Secure the twisted bit and cable down with a small amount of electrical tape. Repeat step three with the other
cable and attach this one to the left bended pin.

Vibrobotics: Step Four

Take a longer strip of electrical tape and strap your motor tightly to the holder.

Vibrobotics: Step Five

Take your origami rocket. At the bottom the 4 sides meet in a point, push these outward so they form a sort of platform. This creates the place where you can stick the motor to.

Vibrobotics: Step Six

Now take some double-sided tape and stick the holder to the small piece of card. Stick another piece of double-sided tape on the back of the card and attach to the bottom of your rocket.